Aback he leapt—it seemed somehow amiss,
For well he knew a woman has no beard;
He'd felt a thing all rough and longish haired,
And said, "Oh fie, alas! What did I do?"

"Teehee!" she laughed, and clapped the window

to;
And Absalom went forth a sorry pace.

"A beard! A beard!" cried clever Nicholas,
"Now by God's corpus, this goes fair and well!"

This hapless Absalom, he heard that yell,
And on his lip, for anger, he did bite;
And to himself he said, "I will requite!"

Who vigorously rubbed and scrubbed his lips
With dust, with sand, with straw, with cloth, with

chips,

But Absalom, and often cried "Alas!
My soul I give now unto Sathanas,
For rather far than own this town/* said he,
"For this despite, it's well revenged I'd be.
Alas," said he, "from her I never blenched!"

His hot love was grown cold, aye and all quenched;
For, from the moment that he'd kissed her arse,
For paramours he didn't care a curse,
For he was healed of all his malady;
Indeed all paramours he did defy,
And wept as does a child that has been beat.
With silent step he went across the street
Unto a smith whom men called Dan Jarvis,
Who in his smithy forged plow parts, that is
He sharpened shares and coulters busily.
This Absalom he knocked all easily,
And said: "Unbar here, Jarvis, for I come."

"What! Who are you?"

"It's I, it's Absalom."

"What! Absaloml For Jesus Christ's sweet tree,
Why are you up so early? Ben'dte!
What ails you now, nian? Some gay girl, God knows,
Has brought you on the jump to my bellows;
By Saint Neot, you know well what I mean."

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